Helpful Information for Parents, Patients, Partners, and Providers

Helpful Information for Parents, Patients, Partners, and Providers

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Basic Information About Vaccines

Vaccines are widely considered to be one of mankind’s greatest life saving inventions, along with water purification, sanitation, antibiotics, and nitrogen fertilizers (that ensure an adequate food supply). To illustrate just how great a job vaccines have done combatting infections diseases, check out the video in The Vaccination Effect: 100 Million Cases of Contagious Disease Prevented. You might also want to take a look at The History of Vaccines website, an educational resource assembled by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. The CDC has produced a nice video for parents explaining How Vaccines Work with their babies immune system. And vaccines aren’t just for kids. Adults need vaccinations too, as explained on this resource page from the WA State Department of Health.

There are also two other books I can recommend to learn more about the anti-vaccine movement. Both were written by Dr. Paul Offit, a very well known vaccine expert who led a successful effort to develop a vaccine against rotavirus (which can cause fatal diarrhea). This vaccine is saving the lives of hundreds of children across the world every day.

In these books Dr. Offit explains why you shouldn’t be getting your healthcare advice from Gwyneth Paltrow and her ilk? He also explains why he seldom gets in front of the public to argue with anti-vaxxers. Check out Paul Offit’s latest book Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians, and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of Health Information. This second book is a fast read and basically covers two ideas. About half of the book explains why much of the information available from people with no training in medicine or science is at best mostly worthless and at worst sometimes dangerous. He also gives some very good advice for scientists who are planning on engaging with the press to challenge this bad information. Much of this advice is based on his (few) professional career missteps and is meant to guide you to best handle (and hopefully avoid) lawsuits, death threats, biased debate moderators, and ineffective arguments from those you engage with.

National Vaccine Program Office (US)This website contains general information about vaccines and immunization-related activities ongoing at the U.S. federal level. This includes vaccine development, testing, licensing, production, procurement, and distribution.

Institute for Vaccine Safety (US)This group was established in 1997 at Johns Hopkins University. It was put together to provide an independent assessment of vaccines and vaccine safety. It’s goal is to help educate physicians, the public and the media about key issues surrounding the safety of vaccines. Their HPV vaccine page can be found here.

Global Vaccine Safety Initiative (part of the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, Switzerland)In 2011, WHO and others developed a strategic document on vaccine safety called the Global Vaccine Safety Blueprint. This document sets out indicators that aim to ensure that all countries have at least a minimal capacity to ensure vaccine safety. The document contains a strategic plan for strengthening vaccine safety activities globally by building national capacity for vaccine safety in the world’s poorest countries. The Global Vaccine Safety Initiative acts to implement the Blueprint strategy.

HPV Prevention and Control Board (Belgium)This board was created in 2015 with the aim to share relevant information on HPV with a broad array of stakeholders. It’s composed of a group of ‘core’ experts, who set the strategy and define its actions. The HPV Board is located at the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO) of the University of Antwerp.

The Vaccine Confidence Project (UK)The project is housed within the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. According to their website, The purpose of the project is to monitor public confidence in immunization programs by building an information surveillance system for early detection of public concerns around vaccines; by applying a diagnostic tool to data collected to determine the risk level of public concerns in terms of their potential to disrupt vaccine programs; and, finally, to provide analysis and guidance for early response and engagement with the public to ensure sustained confidence in vaccines and immunization.